


i took the stars from our eyes

by and_hera



Series: twitter prompts [2]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Driving, F/M, Prompt Fic, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25736911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera
Summary: “It’s not your fault,” Emily says, and Ben wants to say no, wants to say it is my fault, if I had just been a little bit faster, worked a little bit harder, stopped moping just a little earlier, maybe you would be okay. Maybe you would still be supposed to exist. Maybe the world wouldn’t have broken into two and you wouldn’t have been at the center of it.He settles on telling her to buckle her seatbelt.or, Ben and Emily go for a drive.
Relationships: Ben Arnold/Emily Potter
Series: twitter prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866922
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	i took the stars from our eyes

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: "things you said under the stars and in the grass" + ben/emily - for milo!!  
> okay this is what i think benmily did during 66 while sammy was being bullied by lily! i'm like 75% sure that they say in canon that they found rainbow lights, but i don't really remember, so i think they get to go stargazing instead. thank you  
> title from cosmic love by florence + the machine!  
> pls enjoy! leave comments and kudos! talk to me on twitter @lcvelaces!

They go for a drive.

This isn’t unusual, because they’ve gone for drives a lot of times before, but this time Ben thinks it _might_ be considered a date, and it’s sort of terrifying. Because he’s told her that he loves her, he’s told her that he loves her so many fucking times, but she doesn’t love him back. At least, as far as he knows.

But they’re going for a drive. Ben’s hands are tapping the wheel as he turns at the light on Main Street. He feels kind of bad for leaving Sammy to fend for himself at the station, but also, sometimes he needs to go do things. For the greater good.

That’s what they’re doing. “The greater good.” They’re investigating the place where Ben shot down the UFO and saved two people’s lives. It came from space, presumably, though it can never be proven. But whatever, it’s an object that is unidentified and was also flying, so, a UFO. Technically, for all they know, the Science Institute could have been flying it and pretending aliens are real.

Ben doesn’t think so, though. He thinks this might be the real deal. Sammy will scoff at him, but he thinks he’s right. That doesn’t happen often, because while Ben might be sure of King Falls he is rarely sure of himself, but this? This is real. Emily Potter is real. 

She’s sitting beside him. The radio isn’t on, because sorry Sammy, while this is an investigation it is also a date and Ben doesn’t _really_ want the chance to talk to Emily without Sammy’s voice in the background. He loves Sammy, he’s like his brother and he would do anything for him, but also… if he’s going to get the chance to talk to Emily one on one, he isn’t letting Sammy’s monologuing from the station ruin his night.

Sammy will be fine. Nothing that important can happen in one night, right?

“I’m kind of afraid,” Emily says out of nowhere.

Ben blinks. “Why?”

She sighs. “I don’t know. I haven’t been back there since the crash- since the UFO. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t even remember much from it, just fire and shouting and… and your face.”

Ben’s heart stutters like he’s in a fucking teenage romcom. “My face is pretty memorable, isn’t it,” he jokes, but before Emily can say anything that will undoubtedly crush his dreams, he continues: “I don’t think anything bad is going to happen you know? It’s just the Libbydale farms. Kirk and Dwayne are home, or they should be.”

“They should be?” she asks.

Ben shrugs. “Kirk says that Dwayne might be busy tonight, probably doing wedding stuff or something, but Kirk’ll be there, definitely. I’m sure of that.”

“What wedding stuff is needed in the middle of the night?” Emily wonders, and Ben shrugs again. He turns off the main road and onto a country road that leads to the farms. It’s significantly more worn in than the last time he drove up there.

“Point is, we’ll be fine,” he says confidently. “Promise!”

Emily raises an eyebrow. “Promise?”

“...Yeah. Definitely.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah! We’ll be _fine_ , Em. We haven’t seen the rainbow lights in months.”

Emily laughs. “Man, you’re really just asking for it now,” she says, but she still sounds a little nervous. 

“Listen,” he says. “I’ve brought down a UFO before, and I’ll do it again.”

“Last time, you had a transmorgrifier or whatever the hell it’s called.”

“Yeah, and last time I didn’t have the badass Emily Potter,” Ben shoots back, and earns a smile for that. “We’re just going out to the fields. We’ll stay close to the house, since they don’t seem to like to fly by big buildings.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Tim was abducted in the middle of an empty road miles from civilization and you were abducted in the middle of an empty road halfway up a mountain.”

Emily hums. “I guess that’s true.” She sighs. “I’m sorry I’m being paranoid,” she says. “I don’t want to ruin the night, and I know we’re just going up to check out the place, make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.”

“We’re also going up there for _you_ ,” Ben says. “So you can see where it all happened. That has to help your memories a little, right?”

“Maybe so,” Emily replies, “but I don’t know. I think- I think I remember most things now, at least before the rainbow lights. Now I’m just… forgetful.”

“Forgetful?”

“Yeah. I don’t always remember when I have something to do that day, or I might forget that it’s Wednesday which means I have to be at the library early to have reading time with the kids, or I might leave my TV remote on the dining table and then spend ten minutes checking the couch cushions because I can’t find it.” Emily sighs. “It’s just... not fun.”

Ben wants to hold her hand. “I’m really sorry, Emily.”

“It’s not your fault,” Emily says, and Ben wants to say no, wants to say it is my fault, if I had just been a little bit faster, worked a little bit harder, stopped moping just a little earlier, maybe you would be okay. Maybe you would still be supposed to exist. Maybe the world wouldn’t have broken into two and you wouldn’t have been at the center of it. 

He settles on telling her to buckle her seatbelt. They’ve still got a ways to go.

When they make it to the farm, there’s no light outside. Of course there isn’t, they left around one thirty, only pausing to record a harried message for Sammy to find when he shows up at the station with five minutes to spare like he always does. That’s why Ben told Chet to help him out while he’s gone, because Sammy has no fucking clue what he’s doing with the board. 

It’s very dark, and Emily has her phone flashlight on as they walk up to the front door of the house. Kirk answers. “Hey guys,” he says. “Feel free to roam about, just don’t kill the plants and stuff, please. The Libbydales might kill me if you ruin their lettuce.”

“Promise I won’t go near the lettuce,” Ben says with a smile, and Kirk goes back inside and Ben looks at Emily. “You ready?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” she says, but her face is determined, lips set in a firm line. “Let’s go.”

They walk into the grassy field. This is the one that used to have corn, but after the crop circles and the fake crop circles Pete made, they ended up cutting most of it down and waiting until next year. There are still short stalks, but mostly just grass. The stars here are bright.

“Have you ever been to a city?” Emily asks. “I know you’ve always lived in King Falls, but-”

“I went to DC in eighth grade,” Ben replies, “but besides that, no. I went to college in Big Pine. I’ve never really left here.”

Emily nods. “I grew up in Big Pine,” she says, “but I went to college in Chicago.” She looks up, and Ben sees stars reflected in her eyes. “You never quite see the night sky in cities the same way that you do here.”

“Is that why you came back?” he asks.

She smiles, shakes her head. “No, I came back because I didn’t have anywhere else to go. But I guess the constellations are a plus.”

Ben looks away from her before she notices his staring. “Did you ever want to go anywhere else?”

“Well, yeah,” Emily says, like it’s obvious. “I’ve always wanted to leave this shitty mountain area. I mean, Big Pine was bad enough, but King Falls is worse. Or at least, that’s what I thought when I was sixteen.”

“I’ve never wanted to leave,” Ben replies. “I love it here.”

Emily bumps her shoulder into his before she keeps walking forward, scanning her flashlight onto the grass. “That’s not a bad thing,” she says. “Loving your home is good. And I do love King Falls now. But when I was a kid?” She shrugs. “Not my scene.”

“At least you can see the stars here,” he says.

“At least I can see the stars here,” she agrees.

Ben looks up at the sky, finds Orion’s belt. “Can you really not see anything at night in Chicago?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

“Why would anyone want to live there?”

“Society. People. Tall buildings. Community. Feeling like you’re small. I don’t know. I was only there for a few years.”

“Don’t we have all that here?”

Emily laughs. “Yeah,” she says. “I guess we do.”

And because Ben is feeling bold, he says, “maybe we could go to Chicago someday. I can see what a big city is like.”

“I bet Sammy would get a kick out of you, small town boy, trying to understand the subway system,” Emily says.

And because Ben has no self control, he says, “I was thinking maybe just us two could go. Leave Sammy behind.”

“Oh,” Emily says. Ben is not looking at her face, so he doesn’t know what she’s thinking.

“Just an idea,” he says.

“I’d like that,” Emily replies, and he can hear the smile before he turns and sees it. “I think that would be pretty fun.”

Ben says, “let’s look at the stars.”

Emily raises an eyebrow. “I thought we were already doing that.”

Ben immediately sits down on the grass that’s already damp with dew. He’ll definitely get dirt stains on his hoodie and pants, but oh well. He lays on his back and looks up.

“Oh,” Emily says from somewhere above him. “You mean like _that_.”

“Look, it can’t hurt,” Ben says cheerfully, trying not to sound like a complete idiot. “I mean, that’s where you were, right? Maybe this’ll jog your memory.”

“I don’t think stargazing will jog my memory,” Emily says gently, “but I think it will be nice anyway.”

She lays down beside him, and he’s suddenly very aware of the way her hand is only a few inches from his. He won’t take it, because he’s not an ass and he knows that she isn’t in the right place for that right now, but he wants to. Jack in a box Jesus, he wants to take her hand. He wants to kiss her under the stars and talk to her about nothing and everything forever.

Forever is a long time, Ben reasons, but if he’s with Emily, he think it’ll go by rather quickly.

“What’s your favorite constellation?” he asks, because he needs to be doing something.

Emily hums. “I don’t think I know that many of them,” she says. “I know a few, but I doubt I could pick them out for you if you asked.”

Ben points at three stars in a line. “That’s Orion’s belt,” he says. “He’s the hunter. And there, that one is the big dipper.”

“I definitely know those ones,” Emily says.

“My mom and I used to go sit in the backyard before I went to bed and look at the stars,” Ben confesses. “I ended up memorizing most of them.”

“That’s really sweet, Benny,” Emily replies. “What other ones do you remember?”

So Ben tells her, he points at the sky and explains the stories and the myths behind all the constellations he can remember. He must talk for a while, and he kind of feels bad about it because they’re here for Emily, here to help her remember and maybe to help her feel better about the whole thing, but then she’ll ask him to elaborate more and he feels so needed. Feeling needed is the best feeling of all. He tells her about the stars and she listens and asks questions.

He wonders if she understands what he’s saying underneath it all. He wonders if she knows what he’s saying underneath it all, always, whenever he’s speaking to her. It’s something about love and something about care and something about Emily Potter and radio stations and King Falls. It’s something about the stars. It thrums to the beat of his heart and Ben doesn’t know if he wants to put words to it yet, but he wonders if Emily can hear it anyway.

She’s a smart woman. She probably can.

“I’d like to live in this moment forever,” Emily says quietly, when Ben finally exhausts his knowledge of the sky. Her hair is spread out on the grass and her nose is pink from the chill.

Ben looks at her and he could look at her forever. “Not even to go back to Chicago?”

Emily smiles, an open mouthed thing. “No,” she says. “Not even to go back to Chicago. I love it here. With you.”

It’s so close to the words he wants to hear. “I love it here with you, too,” Ben replies, and the words are easy. 

A beat.

“Wait,” Emily says, “is the sun coming up?”

“It’s like, three in the morning,” Ben says, confused. “So, it shouldn’t be?”

Emily sits up, turns around. “Ben,” she says, “tell me those aren’t the rainbow lights. Coming… coming from the Science Institute.”

Ben looks behind him. “Oh, come _on-_ ”


End file.
